Sam Michael has called McLaren’s Canadian Grand Prix weekend “brutal”, but the team’s sporting director believes that the progress which has been made was masked across the course of the race.

The race saw McLaren’s record run of 64 consecutive grands prix in the points come to an end as Sergio Perez and Jenson Button could only finish 11th and 12th respectively, yet Michael is confident that the team will be more competitive in Silverstone.

“It was a brutal weekend for the team. To be lapped by the top cars, that is probably the most important thing for us to concentrate on. We are still developing the car and it is responding, just not as fast as we had hoped,” he explained to Sky Sports.

“I think the picture of Montreal was painted blacker than what it probably is as we have made progress over the last number of races and I think for Silverstone our thoughts are that we will definitely be more competitive than what we were in Montreal.”

McLaren’s start to the season has been difficult, currently lying 7th in the constructors’ championship behind Force India as both of their drivers have struggled to get used to the MP4-28 car. However, Sergio Perez’s form has been impressive in places, challenging his world champion-teammate (sometimes a little too much) and he was unlucky not to finish in the top five at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Here’s another team that spent millions developing a car based on the 2011 and 2012 tires only to be fecked with the 2013 rubber, thanks to Pirelli’s changes which aren’t an extension of the previous years tires, but rather a new product with new characterics and needing a fresh approach to make them useable.

How the mighty Mclaren have fallen. This is not exactly helping them sell cars is it, Ron?